Anne Fontaine played both volleyball and basketball while at Radford University in the early 90s.
Anne (Fontaine) Sluder who holds a distinction few collegiate athletes can claim, playing in two different NCAA championship tournaments in the same year, has been elected to join the Big South Conference Hall of Fame. League officials made the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
Fontaine, along with former Charleston Southern football player Collin Drafts, former Winthrop Director of Athletics Tom Hickman, and former Coastal Carolina women’s basketball, tennis and softball player Brooke Weisbrod comprise the 2017 Big South Conference Hall of Fame Class.
The quartet will be officially inducted on Thursday, June 1 during a special ceremony as part of the Big South’s annual spring meetings at the Marriott Resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Fontaine, a Wytheville native, is one of Radford University’s most-decorated volleyball performers ever, as she earned All-Conference honors three times in volleyball (1991, 1992 and 1993) and Big South All-Tournament Team plaudits in 1990, 1991 and 1993. She was a three-time team MVP in addition to a two-time VaSID All-State selection in 1992 and 1993.
She appeared in 511 career sets — fourth-most in Big South history, and posted 1,591 kills, 164 service aces, 1,437 digs and 153 total blocks during her career with the Highlanders. Leading the conference in digs with 529 in 1993, Fontaine departed the Big South as the league’s all-time kill leader (now 15th), fourth in service aces (now 16th) and second in digs.
Fontaine was the first player in league annals with 1,500 career kills and 1,000 career digs, and remains just one of six players with 1,500 kills/1,400 digs in the conference record book.
In addition to her volleyball achievements, Fontaine was also a three-time letter winner in women’s basketball and played on three conference title teams for the Highlanders. Fontaine owns the distinction of playing in two different NCAA Championship tournaments the same year in 1993-94 — she led the Highlanders to the Big South’s first-ever berth in the NCAA Volleyball Tournament that fall and played a key role on Radford’s 1993-94 Women’s Basketball NCAA Tournament squad.
Fontaine, who earned the prestigious Radford University Outstanding Student Award in 1995, remains Radford’s career leader in digs and service aces and is second in career kills. She was inducted into Radford’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002.
The Big South Hall of Fame, created in 2003 as part of the League’s 20th Anniversary celebration, now totals 65 former Big South Conference student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors with the addition of this year’s class.
— Courtesy of RU Athletics
